A look into the state of nursing and education in the post-COVID pandemic world

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — It’s no question that the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic took a toll on healthcare workers and how the healthcare industry operated. Hospitals needed to reconsider how to house patients while protecting themselves. There were national personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages, and nursing schools needed to find a workaround.

One of the biggest issues the nation, and New York, saw specifically, was the nursing shortage.

Now, as we come out of the pandemic, how have healthcare organizations, policy the nursing workforce and nursing education been affected?

NURSE SHORTAGES PRE-PANDEMIC

The nurse shortage was not a new problem. It was a recurring issue pre-pandemic. New York state specifically experienced these shortages more substantially, according to a New York City nursing staffing report. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of registered nurses (RNs) nationally rose by 4.3% to reach almost 3.7 million. At the same time, New York City saw a reduction in RN employment during the pandemic of 1.1% to almost 57,000 in 2022, while counties outside New York City saw a reduction of 5.3 percent, the report said.

The main reasons nurses were leaving pre-pandemic and during the pandemic have not changed, according to a 2021 survey conducted by McKinsey & Company. “Not being valued, inadequate pay, and unmanageable workloads are the top factors impacting surveyed RNs’ decisions to leave a job in the past 18 months,” the survey said.

The same survey indicated that 22% of nurses said “that they may leave their current position providing direct patient care within the next year.”

McKinsey & Company conducted the same survey in 2022 and 2023, and the number of nurses indicating that they may leave their position grew.

McKinsey’s study reflected that in order to attract and keep nurses, they would…